It did not take long for demolition crews and some heavy machinery to tear apart a 101-year-old Craftsman-style apartment building in Echo Park. The demolition began on Wednesday morning and continued today as passersby stopped to take photos as the two-story building at the corner of Echo Park and Park avenues was reduced to a pile of splinters.

The building avoided being torn down in late 2010 to make away way for a new retirement apartment complex at the corner of Glendale Boulevard and Park Avenue. Following talks with the city and the Echo Park Historical Society,* the Foursquare Foundation, owners of the structure, agreed to move the apartment building three blocks to a temporary site at the corner of Park and Echo Park avenues until a buyer and a permanent home could be found. But after a potential buyer failed to have the Craftsman relocated, the owners moved ahead with the demolition of the apartment house.

* Jesus Sanchez, Publisher of the The Eastsider, is a board member of the historical society